Senator Masto, Fetterman, and Angus King voted with the republican stopgap spending bill.

[lostincalifornia]

15. It was more than a couple, and we barely were even able to get the ACA passed.

The U.S. House of Representatives was safely Democratic as a result of the election by a margin of 257 – 199, but the political dynamics happened in the Senate.

Going into the 2008 elections, the Senate consisted of 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and two Independents (Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont) who caucused with the Democrats. When the smoke cleared from those elections, the Democrats picked up eight seats to increase their majority to 57-41 (However, Democrat Al Franken’s recount victory was not official until July 7). With the two Independents, the Democrats were one vote shy of the supermajority magic number of 60 they needed to ward off any filibuster attempts and move forward with broad healthcare reform legislation.

In April 2009, the dynamics changed when Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Spector changed parties, giving Senate Democrats that coveted 60th vote.
Now we had a safe majority in the House and a filibuster-proof supermajority of 60 in the Senate, but that scenario lasted only four months because Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts died on August 25, 2009, leaving the Democrats, once again, with 59 seats (counting the two Independents). One month later, Democrat Paul Kirk was appointed interim senator from Massachusetts to serve until the special election set for January 2010, once again giving the Democrats that 60th vote.

At that time there didn’t seem to be an urgent need for Democrats to reconcile both bills immediately, because the Massachusetts special election (scheduled for January 19, 2010) was almost certain to fall to the Democrat, Attorney General Martha Coakley, because no Republican had been elected to the U.S. Senate Massachusetts since 1972. Unfortunately, republican scott brown ran a campaign against the ACA, and won the special election by 110K votes.
That left House Speaker Pelosi and President Obama in a dilemma. Everyone assumed that the Christmas Eve 2009 Senate bill would be tweaked considerably to conform more with the House bill passed two months previously. But now that strategy wouldn’t work, because the Democrats no longer had the 60th vote in the Senate to end debate. So they decided to have the House take up the identical bill that the Senate passed on Christmas Eve where It passed 219 - 212, and no republicans came on board, and 34 Democrats in the House voted against it. President Obama signed it and it became law, with no Republicans coming on board, and 34 Democrats voted against it.

We barley got it through as it was, and with Nelson in Nebraska, Nelson in Florida, Lincoln in Arkansas, Lieberman in Connecticut, Evan Bayh in Indiana, and Pryor, all who wouldn't vote for a public option if it was included in the ACA, we had very little choice. Better to have something than nothing.

As to your original question, we are an open tent party on most issues, and that has been our greatest strength and weakness. Howard Dean's 50 state strategy recognized this, and we won because of that strategy. Excluding "centrists" from the Democratic party, would make us a permanent minority party.